The lack of progress on Denver’s campaign to end homelessness and meet its goals of delivering modernized facilities and more comprehensive services is troubling. But the activities of neighborhood associations to stall or prevent accomplishing those goals in the area where many of the homeless gather is disgusting.

Upwardly mobile young executives who want the homeless to disappear because their property values or business traffic might be adversely affected demonstrate surprisingly warped character development and cruelheartedness.

Relegating the homeless to the barely visible periphery of society doesn’t solve the problem. These homeless people, many of them veterans who gave of themselves to secure our lifestyles, are our family members, friends and fellow human beings who deserve our assistance, not a blind eye, a deaf ear and lip service.

Rev. Matthew H. Snider, Aurora

This letter was published in the April 9 edition.

Regarding the proposed daytime community center [near the Denver Rescue Mission], I must say I do have some reservations. As it stands now, the project is planned to have a 10-foot-high wall surrounding the waiting area.

Now, I know the chances of having an 11-foot-tall homeless person are slight, but it is still not outside the realm of possibility. As such, I would suggest raising the proposed height of the wall an additional foot on the off chance I would otherwise have to see one of these people.

Tom Hoffert, Denver

This letter was published in the April 9 edition.

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“Helping Denver’s homeless — or hiding them?”
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This is a joke, right?????

Wasn’t there a proposal from The State that the former Fort Lyon Correctional Facity would make a great place to bus and house Denver’s homeless to?????

What could possibly be a better way to “hide them”…..than to bus them 200 miles away????

(For those who don’t know, the former Fort Lyon Correctional Facility is in Bent County. For those who don’t know where Bent County is……go south to Pueblo…….and then east on US Hwy 50 for about 100 miles.)

peterpi

Building 10 ft walls around them.

toohip

As a “Christian” I’m sure you would follow the instructions of your Jesus and take them into your home, right Robt?! Better turn back to your bible.
Mathew 25:35, 40-35

peterpi

My favorite passage in the entire Bible, Jewish or Christian Scriptures is Matthew 25:34 – 45.
In those verses, Jesus of Nazareth captures the entire social justice message of the Jewish prophets.
Robtf’s bible seems to be missing those verses.

peterpi

Spot on, Rev. Snider.
Bravo, Mr. Hoffert.

Robtf777

“The lack of progress on Denver’s campaign to end homelessness and meet its goals of delivering modernized facilities and more comprehensive services is troubling. ”
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The only way you can “end homelessness” is to……drum roll…..make being ‘homeless’…..UNATTRACTIVE.

A Great Way to INSURE that homelessness is always with us and will increase is to……drum roll……make it MORE ATTRACTIVE.

Giving the homeless money…..free money…..and giving them free food……and good free food……and having modern facilities and comprehensive srevices……does NOT make being homeless that UNattractive to those who LIKE being homeless…….

………….and actually ATTRACTS more people into BEING ‘homeless’…. since they don’t have to do any work…….and they get all their needs provided to them and for them……by people they actually consider to be “suckers”……as in “suckers” for (1) working (2) providing for them.

“Build it and they WILL COME”……applies not only to a ballpark or an amusement park or a great restaurant……..but The Homeless……..who are ATTRACTED to “free handouts”…..like fflies are to honey.

It’ds kind of like the cartoon character Crankshaft who built a nice bird feeder…….and got frustrated by all the squirrels that it ATTRACTED…….until he installed a BARRIER.

Sometimes……we have to think about putting up BARRIERS……to keep things we don’t want……out…..otherwise they will be ATTRACTED.

peterpi

OK, so you don’t want to ship them off to Ft. Lyons and you don’t want to assist them.
Do you think starvation will work?

toohip

too slow for Gene and Still!

DR

You’re an ignorant, despicable, pathetic excuse for a human being. I don’t feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for anyone that knows you and has to deal with you on a day to day basis. Just pure human trash. Nothing more.

toohip

Truly a classic response from the uber-Christian-right! (and we wonder why Christianity doesn’t walk the talk in this nation!)

Dave52

Ignorance and bigotry. In the US, about half the homeless people are working – they just can’t afford any housing. Increasingly, its mothers with children, some families. The average stay in a homeless shelter is around two weeks.

It doesn’t take much of an effort to discover that the stereotype of smelly, pan-handling drunks that you hold so dearly isn’t very accurate.

Dano2

A new low for the low-information segment of our society.

Best,

D

daweber

Don’t talk about the Democrats that way. It’s rude.

Granny

Oh c’mon, Robt, homelessness and hunger is sooooo attractive that we all wish we could live on the streets. Where did Christ say to starve the poor? Such heartlessness strikes me as totally incongruent with Christ’s teachings.

Robtf777

“These homeless people, many of them veterans who gave of themselves to secure our lifestyles, are our family members, friends and fellow human beings who deserve our assistance, not a blind eye, a deaf ear and lip service.”

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YEA!!!! GREAT!!!! WONDERFUL!!!

So how many of these “family members” and “friends” and “fellow human beings” are YOU……HOUSING……in YOUR HOME?????? or in your CHURCH, Rev????

Thought so.

Does “do as I say but not as I do” sound familar?

Thought so.

Note: The ONLY thing I am complaining about is this “Holier-Than-Thou” attitude a LOT of these “Pro-Homeless” types have…….especially “religious” types…….when their idea of “they deserve our assistance” means “NOT IN MY HOUSE”……but “in someone elses neighborhood or city.”

That was a rather cheap shot Robert. Most Reverend’s/church’s I’ve come in contact with donate to food banks, shelters, women’s crises centers and also help out their own congregations so they don’t become homeless. Now what exactly have you done to help the homeless or underprivileged? A few church’s have small accounts where they pay for meals when someone comes knocking on their doors. Some church’s also work hard to find shelter for refugees and the homeless so why don’t you give Rev Snider a call and find out the facts before criticizing.

Dano2

Who Would Jesus Be a D–k To?

Best,

D

GenePH

Just keep it out of Cherry Creek.

Everyone’s on their own in these days of creeping Obamavilles.

peterpi

Keep “it” out of Cherry Creek?
Don’t you mean “them”?
I mean, you do know homeless people are a “them”, not an “it”?
Nice way of sneaking in Obama. Goodness knows, there were no homeless people under Bush.

GenePH

“It” would be the homeless center.

Do you remember Mitch Synder? Do you remember the grief they used to give Reagan? Turned out, Mitch Synder was a fraud. Remember that? Republican presidents get blamed by the liberals and liberal media when they are in power. When liberals are in power and things actually do get worse, you people are silent.

toohip

You should stop watching Faux News and reading other conspiracy right-wing websites. Stick to that river in Egypt along with the usual suspects here, it befits you and you can drown you’re reality!

Right: reality has a lib’rulllllll bias. You can’t show that our economic decline is due to them thar hippies.

Best,

D

toohip

Kudos to Tom Hoffert’s tongue in cheek sarcasm for highlighting the “dirty little secret” we all don’t want to see or talk about. . our increasing homeless population. While there are many reasons for the increasing homeless population, the economy and failure of a safety net system, are the front-line causes as our politics serve the uber-rich vs the uber-poor and needy. While many homeless are not really candidates for reversal, and choose to live this lifestyle there are programs and ways to help these people be more self-reliant and less of a negative affect on others. But like so much of poverty in this great nation, a certain element wants to ignore it or hide it.

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